FORT COLLINS — Colorado State is back into the regular-season mode, tightening up on the amount of time scribes are allowed to be on the fields to watch practice. So after watching the start of practice, we’re back in the Moby Arena media room for a bit until we’re allowed back in when they’re done.

That’s typical and I’m not complaining, and in fact harken back to arguing to Denver Nuggets coach Doug Moe that he needed to close practice and having him respond: “If I have to watch this —-, you do too.” That was when closing practices, thanks to Pat Riley, was starting to become more popular and our writers’ association (I’m not sure why) was complaining about it to the league.

Anyway, I have time for a few musings about the Rams as Rocky Mountain Showdown week opens:

Grayson’s father, Brad, said he wasn’t in favor of the Rams removing Garrett’s redshirt and using him in the final four games of the 2011 season after Pete Thomas was injured. If he hadn’t played that season, he’d be a junior now. But Garrett says he didn’t mind. “I was pretty ready to play then,” he said. “I wanted to play then, from the start of the year. I think going into Coach Mac’s first year, having those first three (starts) I did have, just that little tiny bit of experience helped me a lot. It taught me how to watch games and approach things a certain way.”

Brad Grayson said of Fairchild: “The guy was pretty rough around the edges with Garrett, even called him some names I didn’t agree with and hurt. But I said, ‘Garrett’s a man now, let’s see how he handles it.’ … I actually think Fairchild did OK with Garrett, I really do, but it’s better with McElwain.”

The story discussed how Washington State wanted Grayson as a safety and he considered walking on at Washington. Additionally, here’s what he said about the Huskies: “I was going to try and learn as much as I could from Jake Locker in his final year.”

A few weeks ago, I wrote about Grayson’s summer visit to the Manning Passing Academy. He said a little more about that the other day, including: “The biggest thing for me is that I’ve been watching a lot more film. I can’t watch 80 hours like he does. It’s not my job and I have school, so I won’t be able to watch that much. But I have been watching more. And he added of his receivers: “We’ve all been staying after and that was something Peyton said. ‘Each day you should work on specific routes, not 20 different routes. You should just pick two or three you want to work on.’ The thing we’ve been doing is back shoulders and things like that, trying to get our timing with everything.”

He had said earlier that Manning told him to repeat plays or aspects of drills until all got it right. Has that happened in the Rams’ preseason practices? “Yes, multiple times and Coach (Dave) Baldwin has actually stopped it sometimes before I’ve had the chance to, because we talked about it this summer. I mentioned that Peyton wants to fix things right then and there, so coach Baldwin knows that now and he wants to fix it too.”

— CSU last week released the makeup of its search committee to help hire a new athletic director, and the fact that Sonny Lubick was on it should eliminate any talk that he is, should be, or would be willing to be, a candidate.

My view is that CSU has three choices:

One, hire a No. 2 at one of the powerhouse athletic departments in the country.

Or,

Two, lure a current AD at a second-tier athletic department. CSU tried that approach with Paul Kowalczyk, who came from Southern Illinois, and yes, he eventually was fired to make way for Jack Graham. But to this day, most open-minded folks concede Kowalczyk did a good job and his major problem was the stigma of being the AD who forced out Lubick. Some of that criticism, of course, comes from folks who were two-faced, blasting Kowalczyk publicly while privately admitting it might be time for a change.

Or,

Three, elevate deputy AD John Morris, who has been the day-to-day manager of the athletic department since his 2012 hire.

Terry Frei graduated from Wheat Ridge High School in the Denver area and has degrees in history and journalism from the University of Colorado-Boulder. He worked for the Rocky Mountain News while attending CU and joined the Post staff after graduation. He has also worked at the Oregonian in Portland, Ore., and The Sporting News. His seventh book, March 1939: Before the Madness, was issued in February 2014.